Category: Tech

Blogging from a (Mini) Mac

Well, I’m not rich or convinced enough to go all-in with something super-expensive, but I was curious enough to dip my toes in the Mac-water with a Mac Mini. I bought one a couple of weeks ago, hooked it up to one of the two monitors in my study and have been using it, along with my PC, ever since. At first, I was under-whelmed, but the more I use it, the more I like it. I already prefer it for converting my home movies for my media server. Getting it to play well with my reasonably extensive home network was a bit of a challenge, but except for a couple of still-invisible devices, I managed to get there.

The early results are that I get the Mac thing, at least to some extent.

It’s hard to tell if I will gravitate more to the right side of my setup- where the Mac resides, but at a minimum I’ll keep the Mac around for the things it clearly does better than a PC. If I win the lottery, I’ll buy a tricked out Mac Pro and run both OS’s via Parallels or some other software.

I can tell you absolutely that there is no Mac-equivalent to Windows Live Writer for writing and managing blog posts. I’m using Ecto at the moment, and, with apologies to the Mac nation, it’s not even in the ballpark. It feels like going back to Internet Explorer after years of Firefox plug-in heaven.

UPDATE: I really don’t like Ecto. This post originally posted to an old, abandoned blog I still haven’t deleted. Granted, I’m sure I could figure out how to post it to this blog, but how wasn’t immediately evident, as it is in Live Writer. I reposted it via the Blogger dashboard.

I also hoped that iTunes would be faster on a Mac. It’s not- the Windows and Mac experience seem identical. It still amazes me how inflexible, slow and generally crappy the iTunes application is, given how elegant the Apple hardware is.

But there’s still something that feels different and oddly better about using the Mac. Plus, Earl and my other Mac buddies will be proud of me for taking the first step.

Zoho’s Lucky Day: Google Closes Its Notebook

I have been a regular user of Google Notebook for a long time.  It’s not as pretty or full-featured as Zoho Notebook, but I don’t need a lot of those extra features.  I just need a simple, uncluttered and easy to use place to keep and access notes and other data.  Google Notebook has filled that role well for a long time.  Surprisingly, Google announced today that it is ceasing development on Google Notebook, apparently along with some other apps I have never used.  So from a note taking perspective, I am homeless.

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I don’t understand this move.  Google Notebook was a useful and reasonably well designed product.  I have to believe a lot of people used it.  Why couldn’t Google just add a right-side column with AdSense ads to fund development?  I also wonder if this is indicative of a move away from Google’s chase for desktop application dominance.  Google Docs is still under active development, but any office suite (or online substitute) needs a note taking application- at least as an add-on.

Technically, current Google Notebook users will continue to have access to their data and, presumably, the ability to create new notebooks.  But the Google Notebook extension will no longer be available, nor will the hope for new features.  In other words, Google has opened the door, but out of courtesy will wait patiently for everyone the leave the party.

So where does that leave us note taking hobos?  There’s always Evernote, which would be the easy choice if I made all of my notes on the iPhone.  Evernote’s iPhone application is elegant, but its web interface borders on horrible.  I suppose I’ll move my notes to Zoho Notebook, at least for now.  Zoho Notebook is a fine application, but, again, I think it has more horsepower (and clutter) than I need (or want).  Plus, I don’t find an iPhone app for Zoho Notebook.

I need a note taking home, with a simple, but powerful web interface and an elegant iPhone application.

Can anybody spare a link?

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Drawing the Line: No Text Spam

notextspamTechdirt has a story on the ATT American Idol text spam that I and many others received today.  ATT responds by saying that it wasn’t spam because it was sent to people who previously voted in American Idol contests and other so called “heavy texters.”  I’ve heard some mind boggling arguments in my day, but that may take the cake.

First of all, it’s clearly spam by any rational definition of spam.  Additionally, ATT must have a pretty low threshold for what constitutes a “heavy texter.”  I have never watched one second of American Idol, much less voted for a contestant.  My kids text me some on their iPod Touches- maybe three or four times a week.  If that makes me a heavy texter, then just about everybody is one.

Of even greater concern is the potential for companies, legitimate and not, to start tossing unwanted crap in our face via text messages.  Spam has completely killed faxing- I unplugged my fax machine long ago because of all the bullshit fax spam from travel agencies and health insurance brokers.  It takes a ton of work and technology to stop email spam at the inbox gate- I get about 1000 spams a day at home, compared to maybe 20-30 legitimate emails.

I do not want text messaging to turn into another battleground for my privacy and peace of mind.

If companies start text-spamming me, they are going to lose my business.  I think we should start a no text-spam movement.  Maybe by collective action, we can stop this menace in its tracks.

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Mobile Blogging

ibloggerI’ve been looking at the various blogging apps for the iPhone. I wish there was a Live Writer iPhone app, but in its absence, I settled on iBlogger.

iBlogger seems to work reasonably well, though I don’t understand why links end up a couple of lines below where I try to add them. The link building form is a nice touch, but blogging from an iPhone really drives home the need for cut and paste.

The biggest drawback is that you cannot add photos if you use Blogger as your publishing platform, as I do. This feature is spposedly forthcoming, and it better get here soon. Photos are a must-have component in any iPhone app.

The jury and the camera are still out, but I think iBlogger has a lot of potential.

Evening Reading: 1/5/09

So it’s out with 2008, in with 2009 and back to the big, scary rat race.

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Noupe has an excellent list of free Photoshop tutorials.  Personally, I think you need a masters degree in Photoshop to use it to its fullest.  So I tend to look for plug-ins that will do the work for me.  I know that I could make some amazing stuff if I really knew Photoshop.  The problem is that I already have a job.

Mike Fruchter has an excellent list of steps to get started in social media.  While I continue to believe the return on social investment for blogging is very low compared to the effort it takes, Mike’s suggestions are uniformly good.  I would add that, unless you have the time and staying power to keep at it until you will your way up blogger’s hill, your blog should be focused on getting ideas out of you, as opposed to into others.  I think the slow progress towards readership and interactivity is why so many bloggers give up or move to Twitter, where the work is lighter and the audience (or at least the people who theoretically see your posts) is larger.

Gear Diary, in reviewing the Griffin Road Trip, mentions the biggest pain in the ass about iPhone accessories- the fact that any case makes the device too big to fit on the adapter.  This drives me crazy.  And no, I don’t want to try the slider case, because they are also a pain in the ass and I don’t believe that the little strip of rubber inside the case will protect the phone any better than, say, nothing.  The Marware Sport Grip is, so far, the only case I like.  Speaking of the Griffin Road Trip, not only will my encased iPhone not fit the adapter, but the neck on that thing is about half (really, less than half) as long as it should be.  I have to lay down on my seat to get my iPhone.  Otherwise, though, it’s a neat device.

As noted before, we use and love Beejive IM (iTunes link).  The forthcoming update looks awesome.  If you text at all, you should use Beejive.  It’s a bargain, even at $16.

It’s a little before my time, but if you like music from the late 50’s, here’s a jukebox for ya.  Now someone go do one for the mid-seventies.

I haven’t tried it yet, but the greatest board game of all time is now, sort of, on the iPhone.

Consumerist on DirecTV installation problems.  We’ve had one box (out of four) that has been searching for almost a year for a signal for Satellite 2.  This means no live TV on several channels, including the networks.  Oddly enough, you can often successfully record shows on those channels- you just can’t watch them live.  Our recent experience with DirecTV support has been, to say the least, unsatisfactory.

Why do I keep going to the Apple web store and looking at Mac Pros?  I love my iPhone and AppleTV.  Surely I’m not about to go all in.  Am I?

Eye-Fi, which I and my kids use regularly with our digital cameras, is coming to the iPhone.  If you have a friend or parent who is not interested in learning the technology, but wants to use a digital camera, Eye-Fi may be just the ticket.

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Are Computers Becoming Irrelevant?

I have loved computers since that Christmas break long, long ago when my brother in law and I stayed up all night playing Odyssey: The Compleat Apventure on his Apple II.  Later, I spent countless hours playing Starflight and writing shareware games on an IBM clone.  Even later, I wrote and recorded hundreds of songs and took my home office paperless, all on my trusty computer.  In order to learn as much as possible about computers, I started building my own.  It makes me a little sad to realize that my beloved is quickly becoming irrelevant.

But the fact remains they are, because we just don’t need them anymore.  A confederacy of other devices have stolen all the fun and turned the once proud computer into an over-priced media server or typewriter.  The addition of an HP MediaSmart Server to my home network removes even the data storage role from my desktop computer’s job description.

So how did it happen?

Let’s start with games.  I have fond memories of late nights playing all sorts of computer games, from the excellent until abandoned Front Page Sports games to most of the Civilizations.  Then came Nintendo, the PSP, the X-Box and, finally, the Wii.  I held out during the PSP and X-Box era, but one game of Mario Kart on my kids’ Wii was all it took to convince me that the computer is an ineffective and obsolete gaming platform.  From this point on, it’s all about Mississippi Queen on Guitar Hero.

For email the herd has migrated to the iPhone and other lesser, but effective, devices.  We also use text messaging a lot more that we used to.  My family uses Beejive IM on our iPhones and iPod Touches, both to allow the kids to text from their iPods and to avoid the cost of traditional text messaging.  For music, we have our iPhones and iPods, AppleTV and, most recently, the ability to hear and display Pandora through our home theater system, via Samsung’s excellent BD-P2550 blu-ray player.  The Pandora application on this box is easy and beautiful.  It shows the last few songs played, with album art, and lets you easily switch between stations.  You can also watch your Netflix instant queue on this box.  It’s a brilliant strategy for the DVD makers to go on the offensive in the turf war.  PC makers have been trying, unsuccessfully, to displace DVD players for years.

If you just want to rent movies online or easily access your home movies, there is no better solution that AppleTV and iTunes.  Again, except for a server tucked in a closet somewhere, no computer needed.

All of this leaves the computer in the unenviable role of typewriter.  Sure, we need typewriters.  We use them every day.  But we don’t love them.  Or think of them as fun.  And, sadly for the PC makers, we don’t want to pay much for them.  So all these new devices steal the fun and the dollars, while the once mighty computer becomes a commodity, like paper, pens and other office supplies

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Why Sharing is Holding Back Application Development

I still love my iPhone.  I especially love the fact that I can read my iPhone reading list and browse the App Store for new applications that promise to make my life easier and more efficient.  The iPhone/App Store combination has been one of the biggest productivity advances I have ever experienced.  Heck, Apple may be taking over my tech life- I bought an AppleTV box today.  It’s another elegant device and, by far, the best device I have found for serving home movies.

But it could be better.

hatesharingEvery developer, every application and every blogger is obsessed with sharing, collaboration, yada, yada.  Today I read that the developers of my most useful app, Evernote, may be moving their focus away from their excellent iPhone app to focus on, you guessed it, sharing and collaboration.  Does anyone actually use the collaboration features crammed into all these apps for anything truly useful?  Most people I know are more interested in keeping people away from their data than putting it out there for the world to see.  Even if we wanted to collaborate with our partners, clients, etc., no corporate IT department in the world would let us.  And even if they did, there are enterprise platforms that permit collaboration while maintaining the big business-mandated level of security.

The iPhone has crossed over from the realm of the geek to the larger and much more profitable realm of the mainstream user.  I have numerous real world friends who can barely send an email, but who use and love their iPhones.  These people and thousands if not millions like them represent a gold mine for application developers.  And most of them couldn’t care less about the ability to share their documents with others.

The reason why the Apple Store was packed today, why I am morphing into an Apple lover after years of resistance, why so many of my real world friends have the Apple sticker in the windows of their cars, is simple.  This stuff works.  It’s easy to set up and use.  And most importantly, it makes tasks that lots and lots of people do every day more efficient and more fun.  Tasks like email, texting, information storage and retrieval, taking and emailing photos, finding a good nearby restaurant, playing Uno with your kids, etc.

The Evernote team, and just about every other app developer, would be better served and would more easily tap into that gold mine, if they forgot about sharing and focused on making their application more useful to non-geek users on an individual basis.  For example, while the Evernote iPhone app is intuitive and easy to use, the web application needs a lot of work.  That’s where the focus ought to be.

I think a lot of developers are electing to fish in a small pond, while the fish in the big pond swim around hungrily.

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Evening Reading: 12/18/08

RIM calls the Storm Verizon’s best selling device.  I wonder if they called Verizon later to apologize.  RIM seems to be putting a lot of eggs in the Storm basket.

In related news,  PC World has a list of 7 free “must-have” Storm apps.  The eighth would presumably be the receipt, so you can return it.

Dave Taylor on getting noticed online.  I need some advice on that.  Since I’ve been blogging again, I feel like this blog has the traction of a marble on ice.

There’s a new post at the Adios Lounge.  This one on Clarence White of the Byrds.  If you have any interest in classic country rock music, the Adios Lounge should be at the very top of your reading list.  Want another reason why?  How about a story and full mp3 set from a Doug Sahm, Jerry Garcia and Leon Russell show from 1972?  These posts are like encyclopedia entries, only a hundred times more interesting.  Here’s the RSS feed.

Some folks are squawking about Mobile Spy for the iPhone.  All this means is that my kids may actually get iPhones one day.  It’s easy (and critically important) to “protect” your kids (yes, even from themselves) on their computers.  We need similar tools for mobile phones.

Speaking of iPhones, I’d pay $50 for a good version of Odyssey: The Compleat Apventure on the iPhone.  Shoot, I’d pay $100 for Starflight.

12Seconds looks like a very interesting app (iTunes link).  The iPhone needs a native video camera function, but this looks like a good interim solution.  The iPhone also needs a flash.

I think it’s pretty clear that the iPhone is, in fact, the next big mobile gaming platform.  I think it is not quite an acceptable netbook substitute.  If I were Steve Jobs, I’d direct Apple to develop a device you insert your iPhone into that would give you a regular keyboard, a bigger screen and extra battery life.  Apple would own the netbook space from the first minute.

Granny J on some fancy gingerbread houses.  I love to watch my kids make their houses every Christmas.

I have always been interested in game theory.  Mind Your Decisions shows us why Toyota wants GM to be saved.

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Not Digital Luddites, Busy Grownups

nosocialmediaDwight Silverman asks why some people have elected not to use social media, having received some decidedly anti-social media comments on his blog.  Before I answer that question, let me point out something Dwight said that bears repeating.  Many social media haters already use some form of social media: message boards, comments on blogs, etc.  I’ll go one step further.  What about group email?  Text messages?  What about Amazon?  The best thing about Amazon is the user reviews.  There is a difference, however, between social media as a way to manage your existing network, and social media as your network.

Take Amazon, for example, Amazon helps you evaluate a purchase, make that purchase and have that purchase delivered.  That’s a time saving benefit you can’t get anywhere else.  Email also serves a distinct purpose that helps you efficiently manage your network.  So does texting.  While these things help you navigate through your real-world network, they are less concerned with helping you create a network.  If you’re interested in communicating with strangers, denoting some of them as cyber-friends, and nurturing the most promising of those ephemeral relationships into something tangible, there are real friends to be made through some of the social media applications.  Friends and the resulting transitive connections make a network.  There’s value in that, and in no way am I denigrating those who do this.  But at that point, the social media applications, either singly or in the aggregate, have become your network.  To the profit of the developers, but that’s another story.

And then there’s the troublesome problem of separating those who want to be your friend from those who want your money.  It’s much harder to evaluate the motives of online friendship, where the barrier for entry is low, the anonymity is high and just about everyone is out to make a buck.

There are billions of us out here who don’t want to create our networks online.  We simply want help in managing our existing, real-world networks.  I’d rather have dinner with someone than read his Facebook page or hear what he ate via Twitter.  And, to be honest, I think there is a collective feeling out here that a lot of these applications are toys, to be left for kids.  I share a little of that.  No matter how hard I try, I continue to think of Facebook as a place for young people.  When I’m there, I feel like I’m playing with a GI Joe or something.  MySpace is the Geocities for this generation: ugly, free web sites, with ads.  Twitter is semi-interesting, but the majority of the traffic is people talking over each other or thinly disguised spam.  There’s little there that can’t be handled via email.

Additionally, I think human nature prefers order over chaos.  And content bits spread all over the various social networks is chaotic.  Which is why I think aggregating sites like FriendFeed may get legs faster than the 112th Facebook clone.

In the end, I agree with Dwight.  People who don’t use social media are not digital Luddites.  Many of them are just busy grownups.

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